ABSTRACT
This study assessed the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS) on income and productivity of farmers in Delta State, Nigeria. The study examined the effects of farmers’ participation in GESS activities on their farm income, determined the level of satisfaction of farmers with the GESS programme in the state, and ascertained the perceived benefits derived by farmer participants from the GESS programme in the study area. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data of the study. Sample size was 567 respondents, and they were drawn from 6 Local Government Areas in two senatorial zones of the state. Results showed that the GESS had impacted positively on the farmers’ income. The mean farm incomes of the farmers before and after being members of the scheme were N194,444.95 and N244,709.50 respectively. The difference (N50,264.55) was in favour of farmers after becoming members of GESS. Majority (about 93%) of the respondents were satisfied with the scheme, and this was linked to the many benefits they seemed to be enjoying from the programme. Chow-test revealed that membership of GESS had a significant effect on farm revenue of farmers. Binomial test on the other hand revealed that there was a significant difference in proportion of farmers satisfied and those not satisfied with the scheme. Based on the findings, the study recommended timely release of farm inputs to enable the farmers make judicious use of them. In addition, the use of biometric card reader for verification of farmers’ data was also advocated to help overcome the epileptic network coverage. |
KEYWORDS: |
GESS, agriculture, economy, farm income, farm inputs, farm output |
